Audit Report Delay, Debt Maturity Structure and EarningsManagement

We examine the relation between Audit Report Delay, firms’ debt maturity structures and the propensity to manageearnings. Our results indicate that (i) firms with more current debt are more susceptible to managing earnings, (ii)this relation is stronger for firms facing debt market constraints (those without investment grade debt) and (iii)auditor characteristics such as auditor quality and tenure help diminish this relation. Overall, our results indicate thatearnings management by firms is influenced by the relative amount of short-term debt used in firms’ capitalstructures